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Bad Pitch!
Posted by Katelyn O’Riordan
At Gable PR, our team works on clients in a diverse set of industries, ranging from technology and education to real estate and employment law. We pitch a plethora of subjects and stories: graduations and student successes, new devices and apps, residential real estate sales and renovations, new bills in employment law – you name it!
We pride ourselves on being skilled in targeting our approach to meet the specific needs and interests of the reporters and journalists that we are contacting. We work diligently on behalf of our clients, telling their stories using compelling information, statistics and facts that are relevant to our contacts and offering our clients as experts in their designated industries.
Journalists receive hundreds of emails per day, so it’s important to be concise while also detail-oriented. As a PR professional, nothing is more exciting than getting an immediate response to a pitch or news release. We obsessively check our email inboxes, whether sitting at our desks or scrolling through our phones at the gym or happy hour. When a member of the media responds instantaneously (which unfortunately happens less often than most of us would like), it’s like your parents letting you skip school when you’re seven years old to go to Disneyland. Pure elation.
I digress. When a member of the media responds positively, the aforementioned sentiment is experienced. A negative response from a reporter can leave a PR pro feeling defeated and anxious. Now we get to tell the client that said reporter isn’t interested in their story and a feature article isn’t in their future this time. Another bummer!
But with any response, we at least know that they saw our message and we can halt the follow-ups. To share results from some of our efforts, the Gable PR team has compiled a round-up of the nice and not-so-nice responses we’ve received from media:
Nice:
- After pitching a client as an expert on sexual harassment in the workplace (surrounding a steadily unfolding scandal in the City of San Diego where the mayor, Bob Filner, was being forced to resign), a local daily newspaper columnist responded, “You are so good. We don’t do angle stories like this, however. But if your client wanted to send me a couple of paragraphs about this sexual harassment related issue, I could probably use it. Thank you for your creative, insightful thinking!”
- A national trade publication reporter responds to a pitch on a client’s franchise rollout, “Thanks. We’re exploring some potential stories in coming months involving franchise services like your client’s. We’re going to hold onto this idea until then. Cheers.”
- After following up with a local reporter on a client’s work with a local homeowner, “Thanks for following up! I’d lost track of the original email. This would be perfect for our homes section…this is right up my alley.”
- A daily newspaper reporter reaches out (without us pitching him first) for expert commentary from one of our clients who gave great commentary for a previous story. “I know this is last minute, but would your client be able to comment on the effect of the Hobby Lobby decision on employers?”
- When pitching a broadcast reporter on a tour of a local home renovated by a client with a unique business model (paying the upfront costs to fix those in disrepair to secure a higher sales price and be compensated after escrow closed): “I like this. Thanks for the note, let’s set this up.”
Not-so-nice:
- When contacting a local broadcast assignment news desk editor in regards to a press conference, “Why are you calling me? Are you aware that the entire city is on fire?” Then, he hung up.
- En route to meet a client for a broadcast segment at 5:30 a.m., the morning segment producer called to cancel due to “breaking news,” but after watching the morning show, the Gable PR team found there was no such thing.